A History of Tartan

Although what we currently know as Tartan isn’t thought to have existed before the 16th century we do know that Tartan dates back as least as far as the Roman’s. This is thanks to The Falkirk Tartan pictured above. It ended the debate over whether the “Tartan Craze”, as it came to be called, was a fabrication or a historical truth. It did however, start scholar’s asking if Tartan was a import to Scotland from Dalriada (our ancestor’s) or if the Roman’s brought it in. In either case, Tartan is most decidedly accepted worldwide as a product of Scotland and identifiable with it’s culture.

Upon examining the Falkirk Tartan you can see that it is much simpler that our modern Tartan. This is indicative of the textile manufacturing of the day and the various constraints therein. In fact, you can find a similar style of Tartan today amongst some South East Asian cultures. But as craftsmanship and technology pressed on the patterns became more and more complex in design.

For many centuries, it was believed that Tartan patterns were associated strictly with the weavers from various regions rather than Clans. They used the dyes that they had available to create the distinctive color patterns. Historical accounts go back and forth in the 15th and 16th centuries on Tartan uniformity but a true formal standardization didn’t occur until 1725 when the government force of the Highland Independent Companies introduced a standardized tartan chosen to avoid association with any particular clan.

Even so, there is still doubt surrounding whether the Clans themselves ever had formal Tartan’s prior to the 19th century. Again, this is because they believe that Tartan’s such as the Falkirk Tartan were regional and bore no Clan affiliations. Well, the jury is still out!

But let’s talk for a moment about how the popular narrative of Tartan origination came to pass and then we will discuss what we know of our own Clan.

It is maintained by many that clan tartans were not in use at the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The method of identifying friend from foe was not through tartans but by the colour of ribbon worn upon the bonnet. David Morier’s well-known painting of the Highland charge at the Battle of Culloden shows the clansman wearing various tartans (above). The setts painted all differ from one another and very few of the those painted show any resemblance to today’s clan tartans. Contemporary portraits show that although tartan is of an early date, the pattern worn depended not on the wearer’s clan, but upon his or her location, or personal taste.

The most effective fighters for Jacobitism were the supporting Scottish clans, leading to an association of tartans with the Jacobite cause. Efforts to pacify the Highlands led to the 1746 Dress Act banning tartans except for the Highland regiments of the British army. The Act was repealed in 1782 due to the efforts of the Highland Society of London. William Wilson & Sons of Bannockburn became the foremost weaving manufacturer around 1770 as suppliers of tartan to the military. Wilson corresponded with his agents in the Highlands to get information and samples of cloth from the clan districts to enable him to reproduce “perfectly genuine patterns” and recorded over 200 setts by 1822, many of which were tentatively named.

The naming and registration of official clan tartans began on 8 April 1815, when the Highland Society of London (founded 1778) resolved that all the clan chiefs each “be respectfully solicited to furnish the Society with as Much of the Tartan of his Lordship’s Clan as will serve to Show the Pattern and to Authenticate the Same by Attaching Thereunto a Card bearing the Impression of his Lordship’s Arms.” Many had no idea of what their tartan might be, but were keen to comply and to provide authentic signed and sealed samples. Alexander Macdonald, 2nd Baron Macdonald of Sleat was so far removed from his Highland heritage that he wrote to the Society: “Being really ignorant of what is exactly The Macdonald Tartan, I request you will have the goodness to exert every Means in your power to Obtain a perfectly genuine Pattern, Such as Will Warrant me in Authenticating it with my Arms.”

Royal Patronage

The next event to heighten awareness of Tartan was the Royal Visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822. George IV was the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland in 171 years. The festivities surrounding the event were originated by Sir Walter Scott who founded the Celtic Society of Edinburgh in 1820. Scott and the Celtic Society urged Scots to attend festivities “all plaided and plumed in their tartan array”.

Following the Royal visit several books which documented tartans added to the craze. James Logan’s romanticized work The Scottish Gael, published in 1831, was one such publication which led the Scottish tartan industry to invent clan tartans. The first publication showing plates of clan tartans was the Vestiarium Scoticum, published in 1842.

Twenty years after her uncle’s visit to Scotland, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert made their first trip to the Scottish Highlands. The Queen and prince bought Balmoral Castle in 1848 and hired a local architect to re-model the estate in “Scots Baronial” style. Prince Albert personally took care of the interior design, where he made great use of tartan. He utilized the red Royal Stewart and the green Hunting Stewart tartans for carpets, while using the Dress Stewart for curtains and upholstery. The Queen designed the Victoria tartan, and Prince Albert the Balmoral, still used as a royal tartan today. Victoria and Albert spent a considerable amount of time at their estate, and in doing so hosted many “Highland” activities. Victoria was attended by pipers and her children were attired in Highland dress. Prince Albert himself loved watching the Highland games. Ironically, as the craze swept over Scotland the Highland population suffered grievously from the Highland Clearances, when thousands of Gaelic-speaking Scots from the Highlands and Isles were evicted by landlords (in many cases the very men who would have been their own clan chiefs) to make way for sheep.

Lamont Tartan’s

Bearing in mind this widely accepted general history of Tartan as a cloth and the subsequent “commercialization” of Tartan during the craze let’s examine what we know about our Clan. Lieutenant-Colonel William Lamont of Glasgow delivered an address on Lamont Tartan. The address took place during a Annual General Meeting of the Clan Lamont Society on 6th May, 1910. Later, in a reissue of the address in 1924 he stated,

What we know of the history of Clan Lamont prior to the twelfth century points to the probability that their tartan is still the same in all respects as that worn by their ancestors in Ireland in the first centuries of the Christian Era. It is right, therefore, that we of the Clan Lamont society should do what we can to preserve it intact and without alteration. Part of the duty of the preservation is the prevention and correction of imitation or encroachment.

Returning now to the 1910 address, the Lieutenant-Colonel discussed the “antiquity” of Highland Tartan as “an accepted fact”. He also discussed the same history we have touched on and the apparent confusion many Clans had in determining their “authentic Tartan”. In regard to that confusion and Lamont Tartan he states,

One thing that the Lamont Clan can congratulate themselves upon is that there never been any doubt which pattern is the Lamont tartan. There is no single case of a different tartan being attributed to the Lamonts – any variations appearing in different books being merely slight errors or immaterial differences which are easily accounted for. A good many of the clans have quarreled with the authenticity of the “Vestiarium Scoticum” because so many tartans do not appear as they expected, but we Lamonts quarrel with no authority as to our tartan, because they all agree. The green tartans, or as some people call them, the blue tartans, have a foundation of green and blue with black borders and sprangs. Of this class are the Lamont, the Campbell, the Farquharson, the Gordon, and the Sutherland, which are generally depicted as in all respects the same, except for the distinguishing stripes of white, yellow, or red. The Lamonts are the sole possessors of the white stripe through the green. This is frankly acknowledged by Lord Archibald Campbell in a letter in “The Glasgow Herald,” which I remember reading perhaps 20 or 25 years ago, with reference to the spurious pattern which appeared in the Mauchline Tartan Book in 1850 under the name of “Argyle Campbell.”

Any question of confusion arising with the Graham, which has, according to some authorities, two narrow white stripes through the green and a different arrangement of black setts, is very unlikely. We know of the various families descended from the Lamont who settled in the vicinity of Aberdeenshire in the 15th or 16th century. I have not been able to locate these exactly, but I should not be surprised to learn that some of them were bordering on the Forbes country, and that the Lamonds have been associated with the Forbes at one time in such a manner as to lead to the common use of the Lamont tartan. Whether there is any such connection or not, I cannot say; but I claim – and I think the Clan Lamont Society ought to claim – that the tartan which the Forbeses use is the Lamont tartan and always was.

Even with this information in hand we can still only speculate as to whether our Tartan and it’s beautiful colors have been fixed since we journeyed from Dalriada, borrowed and copied from our neighbors (or they from us) or completely invented in the 18th century. I prefer to think of the former however, one thing about our Tartan is true. It’s beautiful, enviable and fixed. At least we all agree it is. But I’ll let the Lieutenant-Colonel have the final word on that.

As to the shades of colour, there has always been enough sunshine in Cowal to make the fixing of these impossible, and a Lamont has always enough imagination to make it undesirable.